HIQA releases guidelines on children in care
Wednesday, 10 March 2010 22:45
Deaths of children in the care of the HSE will have to be notified to the Health Information and Quality Authority within 48 hours, under new guidelines published today by the authority.
It has set out new national standards for the independent review by a panel of experts of all serious incidents, including deaths of children in care.
The HSE will be expected to publish reports of investigations within 30 days of completion, or at the very least, the executive summary.
The chief executive's response to the recommendations should be published within 45 days of the publication of a report.
Dr Marion Witton, chief inspector of social services at HIQA, said delays in publishing reports and the lack of transparency concerning internal reviews had shaken public confidence in the review process.
She said that robust, local and national child protection structures and systems were needed to provide a unified, independent and transparent system for children in care.
The guidelines mean that the HSE will also have to report all deaths of young adults up to the age of 21 years, who were previously in care, and where a case of suspected or confirmed abuse involves the death of a child known to the HSE, or a HSE funded service.
The HIQA guidance has been produced in response to the findings of the Ryan Report into clerical child abuse and follows more recent controversy over the deaths of 23 children in the care of the HSE over the past decade.
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